Biodiversity

Biodiversity is essential for our existence and significantly valuable in its own right. It provides the essential building blocks for the many goods and services a healthy environment provides.

What is Biodiversity?

Biodiversity means the variety of all life forms and the eco systems they are a part of, on earth. It includes all plant life, marine life, animals and micro-organisms.

Clarence Valley Biodiversity Management Strategy

The Biodiversity Management Strategy aims to make clear what Council is responsible for and what it plans to do to preserve the biodiversity of the Clarence Valley under the broader sustainability umbrella. It covers the full Clarence Valley Local Government Area of approximately 10,500 square kilometres. Read more...

What are the benefits of biodiversity?

Biodiversity is both essential for our existance and significantly valuable in its own right, it provides the essential building blocks for the many goods and services that a healthy environment provides.

What are the main threat to our Biodiversity?

The main threats to our biodiversity are:

Loss, destruction and degradation of habitat

The spread of invasive species

Unsustainable use of natural resources

Climate change

Unsustainable fire regimes

Changes to the aquatic environment and water flows

These threats and the damage they can cause to the environment need to be tackled head on. We are very lucky to live in an area with such valuable natural assets but we often take them for granted without realising that we are continuing to loose them. Clarence Valley Council hopes that putting the spotlight on biodiversity will raise awareness about a range of threats and encourage our community to respond accordingly.

From an ecological and economic perspective it is preferable to prevent biodiversity decline, rather than ameliorate against adverse impacts after degradation has occurred.

This is fundamental to the practice of the precautionary principle. The costs of repairing degraded ecosystems are significant. Therefore, preventing degradation now will reduce the costs of rehabilitation works borne by future generations. It is common sense to ensure there is an appropriate level of investment in biodiversity across the landscape, even in highly fragmented landscapes that are dominated by agriculture, urbanisation or degraded ecosystems.

Council is currently using a number of approaches to address the numerous threats to biodiversity identified above. In some areas, a policy position has been adopted after careful consideration of the issues and extensive public consultation. There are a number of ways that Council can play a positive role in protecting and enhancing native vegetation, important habitats and corridors. These include a range of habitat protection measures including clearing controls, a net vegetation gain policy, land use planning procedures, and the identification of priority vegetation and habitat corridors (‘Biodiversity Areas’). Other areas include Council operational works (e.g. service provision and infrastructure), ecological restoration activities, community involvement and capacity building.